Recap: The Amazing Race Australia 8 (Celebrity Edition 2), Episode 2 – “Calm the farm. Let’s calm the farm.”

The teams will get to experience gaucho life as they arrive in the city of Salta in the Andes. The first clue, which includes 41,000 Argentine Pesos, directs teams to head to Cerro San Bernardo, the highest point in the city.

Chloe & Emily, Havana & Steph, Billy & Oscar, Bam Bam & Logan arrive at the cluebox first which reveals the Road Block: Who likes a fancy dress? For this Road Block, teams will be given a fabric swatch and then must search the intricate costumes of the dancers for its exact match. When finding the dancer, they must memorize the medallion around their necks and then point out the correct one to receive the next clue.

Chloe, Steph, Bam Bam and Oscar decide to do the Road Block. They head down in the cable car to the dancers’ location just as Christian, Jett and Cyrell choose to do the Road Block. Pete, Nat and Brooke are behind.

On the cable car, Mel is afraid of heights. Nat and the other teams try to comfort her. Once they’re on their way, Mel is able to relax and appreciate the beautiful view.

At the Road Block location, Oscar thinks he finds his dancer, but he points out the wrong medallion. All the teams are able to catch up as Chloe thinks she’s found the right medallion. But she does not.

Bam Bam is the first to get the right medallion. They open the next clue revealing the Detour: Strong Stomach or Soft Touch. For both Detours, teams must drive themselves to Finca la Huella in the town of Vaqueros. In Strong Stomach, teams must eat an entire cabeza guateada, a cow’s head cooked underground. Once teams eat the whole thing including cheeks, tongue and eyeballs, they will receive the next clue. In Soft Touch, teams must milk a goat until they’ve got two kilos. This is a Limited Stations Detour.

Next to point out the correct medallions are Chloe, Oscar, Pete and Brooke. Meanwhile, Havana is worried Steph won’t be able to recognize the patterns because she is “close to legally blind”.

In Vaqueros, Bam Bam & Logan get started eating the cow and they are confident they will do fine considering them being Pacific Islanders, they also cook meat underground and never waste any part of the meat. Billy & Oscar and Pete & Bridget also choose to eat, but are a lot less confident and they almost immediately begin to gag. Chloe & Emily and Brooke & Adam head over to the goats.

Back at the Road Block, Steph is able to point out the correct medallion followed by Jett, Christian, Cyrell and Nat.

Back at the Detour, Bam Bam & Logan finish their food and get the next clue. Teams must make their way to Finca Lesser Horse Ranch and perform as gauchos to receive the next clue.

After they leave, Havana & Steph and Jett & Lily arrive at the eating stations. Lily cannot believe what is in front of her and she begins gagging just looking at the cow. Lily does not think she can do it and considers the penalty which is one hour. She thinks about their charity and doesn’t want to quit because she believes it will get them eliminated. Jett convinces her to just quit so they do.

Thorpie & Christian and Cyrell & Eden arrive at the Detour and initially chose the eating, but it is now full so they go to the goat milking instead. Cyrell hates animals and gags at the sight of them.

At the ranch, Bam Bam & Logan discover this is an Intersection. And they must together learn a specific riding formation and routine. When they correctly perform it for the head gaucho, they’ll get the next clue.

Meanwhile, Nat & Mel have gotten lost on the way to the Detour and have driven an hour out of the way.

At the Detour, Chloe & Emily, Thorpie & Christian and Brooke & Adam get their two kilos of milk while Billy & Oscar finally finish their meat. Both Havana & Steph and Pete & Bridget wish they had quit with Lily. But they think about their charities and push through. Both teams are able to finish their meat and head out.

Nat & Mel finally arrive at the Detour just before Cyrell & Eden collect enough milk.

At the Intersection, Jett & Lily arrive at the ranch and Bam Bam & Logan team up with them for the task. After some initial trouble learning the routine, they go for their first attempt and get the thumbs down. But they pass on their second attempt and can now head to the Pit Stop at Dique Campo Alegre.

Chloe & Emily decide to team up with Thorpie & Christian. Brooke & Adam pair up with Billy & Oscar and Havana & Steph and Pete & Bridget intersect.

With Oscar’s horse whisper skills, the father and son and country singers are able to get the thumbs up on their performance next.

Chloe & Emily and Thorpie & Christian go for their first attempt even though Thorpie knew they were not ready. Especially because his horse was not cooperating. They fail two more attempts before Ian gets on a different horse. They finally get the thumbs up on their fourth attempt. Havana & Steph and Pete & Bridget also get the thumbs up. And all four teams head to the Pit Stop.

Cyrell & Eden have to wait for Nat & Mel. But as they are milking their goat, the whole farm goes running when a goat is about to give birth. Nat & Mel are emotional as they watch the beautiful moment. Mel would like to name the baby goat Logan after her daughter who has struggled with mental health the last few years.

Nat & Mel are reenergized and push forward to complete the milking and hurry to the ranch.

At the Pit Stop, Beau welcomes Jett & Lily first to the Mat and starts their penalty time. Bam Bam & Logan step on the Mat and officially check-in as Team #1. As they promised if they ever came in first, they would do a shoey. So Beau gives them his shoes to drink out of.

Billy & Oscar are Team #2, Brooke & Adam are Team #3. Thorpie & Christian are 4th with Chloe & Emily taking 5th. Havana & Steph and Pete & Bridget are 6th and 7th, respectively.

At the Intersection, Nat & Mel finally arrive and they get started with Cyrell & Eden. They go for the first attempt and Nat takes the lead to guide them through the performance. They get the thumbs up and hurry to the Pit Stop.

Jett & Lily’s penalty is over and Beau checks them in as Team #8.

It’s now a footrace to the Mat between the two teams. Cyrell & Eden manage to get to the Mat before Nat & Mel. Cyrell & Eden are officially Team #9. That means Nat & Mel are last and sadly eliminated.

Episode Thoughts

Definitely a stronger episode than the premiere. Very good competition. Great tasks. Exciting, but sad ending. And many surprisingly emotional moments as well.

All of the tasks involved good twists on familiar tasks of the past. Such as the familiar “look for the costume detail” task. Here, you had to memorize the medallion to point it out afterwards. And with a bit of a hectic situation, the simple extra detail can add to the tension and challenge of it. And it was a great to see all the teams catch up too.

With the Detour, the goat milking is certainly a TAR staple task. But for the eating side of the Detour, I wonder if they really had to eat the whole head. Because there seemed to be a lot of meat left on the table on the head. So I feel like they just served the teams specific pieces of meat. A lot of meat sure, but certainly not the whole head with teeth and whiskers and all that. So probably not as gross as it could have been.

The gaucho task was actually a pretty good one for an Intersection. It was another refreshing twist on the familiar gaucho tasks of the pasts since it’s really more of an equestrian-type task actually. No lassos or anything like that. But a nice way to include the gauchos on this Leg.

(Yeah, TARPHDME is going to recycle this Leg for sure lololool Though I would switch the placement of the Intersection and Detour.)

Now, I have never seen an animal give birth ever in my life and I can’t believe my first time is on The Amazing Race Australia lol That was crazy! Lol But what a moment to contribute to Nat & Mel’s story this episode!

I don’t need to harp on the quitting again. Because I could end up going on a long rant about Rob’s shenanigans on the infamous TAR7 meat-eating Road Block. But I’ll save it for another day.

Overall, a good Leg and great episode. Hope next week’s episodes keep it up!

Team Thoughts

So sad to see Nat & Mel eliminated. I got so emotional seeing Mel crying on the cable car. We’ve seen many people freak out over heights and gondolas and feniculars and skydiving before. But this is the first time I got caught up in the moment with the teams! I was really starting to tear up too. I was shocked in myself! lol. Then as soon as they got lost, I hoped this was a Non-Elimination Leg lol Then that moment with the goat giving birth! And then that footrace to the Mat! Nat & Mel have experienced more in one Leg than some teams do in entire seasons lolol Too bad. I was really starting to root for them too.

Bam Bam & Logan and Brooke & Adam are hilarious! What fun teams. I am definitely rooting for them now.

Lol at Steph vomiting on the table and then her wiping it up. That was insane! lolol

Cyrell is definitely a big personality. Thankfully she’s not annoying. Hehe

Too bad about Jett & Lily quitting. I was cheering for Lily to keep going and she seemed like she could’ve gotten through the met had Jett not been so defeatist. I dunno.

The other teams are good as well so far. But there were definitely a few big stars in this episode.

Episode Quotes

Brooke: “They’ve got a bigger wang.”

Nat: “Calm the farm. Let’s calm the farm.”

Jett: “Ready for some delicious, nutritious, probably going to be a little suspicious snacks.”